I live in a land called Mid-America. Here, we want less government involvement in our lives. And we're mostly non-elite, working middle-class. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Climate change, or just bad weather?

North Texas has gone from "Wow, it's snowing!" to "What, it's snowing again?"

It's currently snowing again, for the third time this year, in a part of the country that doesn't get much snow. We get a dusting every other year since I've lived here, and it has never stuck around more than 24 hours. (Update: The weather service has cancelled its Winter Weather Advisory and issued a Winter Storm Warning, with accumulations of 4 to 6 inches, with locally heavier accumulations possible. That's about 3 to 4 years worth of snow in one day).

(Update for Feb. 12: A record was set for DFW airport. About 12.5 inches of snow fell.)

So we're having a cooler than normal winter. It should be in the low 50s, but it's about 32 degrees right now. Is this global warming climate change?

Who knows? Really, who knows for sure (except algore)? While we're having a cooler than normal winter, it is by no means record-setting. The weather service predicted a cooler and wetter winter, and we're getting it. Supposedly it's based on El-Nino weather patterns. I just refuse to get to excited about it, but still can't wait for Spring.

The planet goes through climate change naturally. The Vikings grew grapes in Greenland in 950, but had to leave the next century because of cooling. By the mid-1600s, it was snowing in New England in July.

We have an obligation to keep the planet as clean as possible, just because it makes for a better place to live. But I'm not going to go beserk over it, nor treat the whole issue like a religion.

And driving electric cars is not the best answer either. It takes energy to create electricity, and the old batteries create a bigger environmental problem than they're suppose to prevent. When you make a change, you've got to consider the consequences.

When science is used to make money or control people, it is no longer science, but evil.

3 comments:

ladyj
said...

Sometimes those changes are brought about by volcanic eruptions, no doubt in 1600 when it snowed in New England. It occurred in the 1800's in the United States when a volcano erupted on the other side of the planet and the ash cloud covered the earth. This has happened down through millinea. It is my belief that a volcanic eruption caused the plagues in Egypt which were written about in the book of Exodus as Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Science has proven that to be exact.

A volcanic eruption which happened in antiquity and could have caused some of the plagues if it occurred at the right time is the eruption of the Thera volcano 650 miles to the northwest of Egypt.

Controversially dated to about 1628BC, this eruption is one of the largest on record, rivaling that of Tambora, which resulted in 1816's Year Without a Summer. The enormous global impact of this eruption has been recorded in an ash layer deposit found in the Nile delta, tree ring frost scars in the bristlecone pines of the western United States, and a coating of ash in the Greenland ice caps, all dated to the same time and with the same chemical fingerprint as the ash from Thera.

However, all estimates of the date of this eruption are hundreds of years before the Exodus is believed to have taken place; thus the eruption can only have caused some of the plagues if one or other of the dates is wrong, or if the plagues did not actually immediately precede the Exodus.

Hypothesis no, Scientific, archaeological,geological, yes. Just because it is stated in the Bible, doesn't make it so. 1500 BC Thera erupted. Prevaling winds blew toward Egypt. It's all there! God may have inspired the Scriptures, but man wrote it! Man is fallible. Man put the book together. Man decided what would go into the Bible and what wouldn't. There's so much lore..so much myth. Read Genesis 1:27, then read Gensis 2:18 thru 25 and tell what you think!